


Hold me close and hold me fast

by IfOnlyICouldFlyAway



Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - World War II, Childhood Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not Really Character Death, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 05:50:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19784536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IfOnlyICouldFlyAway/pseuds/IfOnlyICouldFlyAway
Summary: The sun is pretty much gone by the time vanya decides to head back inside the house.She sits patiently on the stone steps with her hands clasped over her skirt, her eyes locked on the front gate as she waits. The thin band on her ring finger offers her comfort as the sun completely disappears with no sign of her lover coming home.She sighs one last time before standing up, patting her skirt down and heading back inside at a slow and reluctant pace.He was supposed to be back a week ago.





	Hold me close and hold me fast

_1950_

The streets were always quiet through out the day, they always seemed deserted; empty, lonesome and sad. It seemed like a long time ago when the trees liked to dance when people were around, swaying both sides to the sweet melody of their laughter. Their beautiful leaves gleaming under the sunlight and the petals of their soft pink flowers littering the street. 

Vanya can still picture the children picking up piles and piles of the petals, tucking them into their tiny pockets to save for later. She can still hear their laughter and see their adorable dimples showing as they smiled and played in the piles. 

Those were better days. 

The days where music flowed through the air while everyone danced, skirts twirling and shoes making loud ‘click clack’ noises. Klaus always liked to say that they sounded like fire crackers, tiny ones going off over and over again each time a new song came on.

Klaus.

God how much vanya missed him and his toothy smile, his long and lanky form dancing at night while she laughed at him from behind, always giving in at the end and twirling around with him. What she wouldn't give to have klaus back home, safe and sound and away from all danger. “My little buggy” ,she would call him. He always did have large and round eyes, twinkling with mischief each time a new idea popped into his silly head. 

Her brother was gone, and vanya didn’t want to even think about his absence being forever, she just prayed every day and every night that’d he make it back home in one piece. And even if he didn’t, she just wanted him back, she’d give whatever It took. 

Instead she was stuck sitting on her front steps every evening as the day ended, staring at her front gate— waiting for it to open. Many times, _hours_ after the sun had settled, she would tuck her head and rest her chin on her knees, tears running down her rosy cheeks as she waited and waited. 

Allison never mentioned it. 

Allison, who was one of her very close friends she had met though school, moved in with her after her fiancée had been shipped off to the army. The woman stayed by her side through it all, and in return vanya had offered her a place in her home. They cooked side by side In the morning and sowed all the fancy clothes in the afternoon. They didn’t make a fortune of course, but the little money they did make was enough for food and enough to send a letter to their family. 

Allison would write to her fiancé Luther, a tall and broad handsome man who towered over everyone, and her brother Diego, a smart and sharp man who didn’t exactly get along with his sisters fiancé. She would write to them twice every month, tears pooling onto the letters as she tucked them into the soft brown envelopes. 

Vanya would write to klaus, her younger brother who she had been left to care for after her mother’s death. She’d tell him about her work and her lonely days without him, her sorrows and prayers. And of course, she would always write to Benjamin— Ben for short. Ben was a tall and built, not the way Luther was built though, he wasn’t bulky or towered over everyone, though he did tower over vanya.

Ben was everything that vanya had ever dreamed of in a man; sweet and caring, soft and intelligent, romantic but overall a good person at heart. Vanya would write to him about whatever she could, about the new books she had read, the new little shops that opened up and the old ones that closed, the factory that she worked at and the flowers that grew in her garden.

She’d write for hours and hours, always drawing a little picture at the end beside her name. Sometimes it was an inside joke, a mailbox with a large dent on the left side— one that resembled the very one he had slammed into when trying to scare away a fox that had sneaked into their garden. Or sometimes it was somethings he would not really understand, sometimes it was the sky and it’s glowing moon, and other times it was a simple flower with a tiny mouse at its side. 

No matter what it was she drew, vanya made sure to never leave that space blank. 

Vanya would kiss the letter tenderly before sending it off, praying to the heavens that it would arrive— and that one would be sent back.

Bens letters to her were a lot different, they too told of different books he had read along the way, and of the different people he had met, the different things he had seen and experienced. But they were different from how he would write down lyrics of some of her favorite songs, or words from her most favorite poems, and her absolute favorite— music notes that he had compiled together. 

Notes that vanya would later play on her violin with her eyes closed, feeling as if he were there with her, his hands on her waist as they swayed gently to the music. 

The amount of love that vanya held for him was unbelievable sometimes, the way her heart would ache for him and her eyes would cry for him. 

Vanya smiled through her tears at night, holding his shirt to her chest as she stared out the window and at the moon, hoping that maybe he’s be looking at it too. 

She wasn’t exactly sure when they’d return, that is of course, until a letter arrived. As she took it from the mailman’s hand, she noticed how crumpled it was and how dirtied finger prints decorated all around the once pearly white paper. As she slowly walked back inside, she peeled the paper open and unfolded the rough paper.

She nearly dropped the letter when she read the words written sloppily across.

 _I’m coming home_. 

* * *

The sun is pretty much gone by the time vanya decides to head back inside the house.

She sits patiently on the stone steps with her hands clasped over her skirt, her eyes locked on the front gate as she waits. The thin band on her ring finger offers her comfort as the sun completely disappears with no sign of her lover coming home.

She sighs one last time before standing up, patting her skirt down and heading back inside at a slow and reluctant pace.

He was supposed to be back a week ago.

The letter that had arrived that day hadn’t said a date, or a location or any information really. But a week after the letter had arrived , klaus had arrived with his arm in a sling and a set of two dog tags hanging around his neck. When vanya had asked him about Ben, he had looked at her with a confused look, “he left three days before me?”. Ben was supposed to arrive earlier than klaus had, and yet he wasn’t there, no new letters had arrived either. 

Vanya closed the door quietly behind her, her hand hesitating on the lock for a few seconds before turning it and hearing the familiar click. She sighed tiredly, her legs were still numb from sitting out all those hours, most likely a tiny bruise had formed by now from the constant digging in of a rock.

The stone steps weren’t exactly the best seats of the house.

”still nothing?” Came a soft voice from behind her. 

Vanya didn’t have to turn around to know it was klaus. Allison was already upstairs in bed with Luther— who had arrived a little later the same day that klaus had.

She shakes her head slightly, the motion barely noticeable but klaus knows the answer already. He huffs and leans against the wall, his hands shoved into his pockets while a cigarette hangs on his lips. Vanya had never seen klaus smoke before, she remembers him making a face and yelling out “yucky!” When she had brought up the idea. But after months of being away, there were obviously things that would be different in her beloved brother. 

Klaus never slept, he rarely could he would say, “I’m not that tired” he’d lie, “I already slept” and “I’ll sleep in a little while”. He also smoked, drank and drugged himself, vanya didn’t miss the tattoos the covered his body either. But she didn’t say anything, she never mentioned how he would refuse to shower, or how he wore the same clothes every day, or how he didn’t eat and instead chose to drink in the morning. 

_Klaus is back_ , she would remind herself. She had waited for months for his return, sitting alone on those god dammed steps for her baby brother to return. And now that he was back, she’d do whatever it took to save him.

Even if that meant giving him the space he silently asked for.

“Well, he won’t be here for a dance for a while, mind joining me?”. She held her hand out towards him with a tired look in her eyes.

Klaus stared at her hand for a few seconds as if he were remembering or reliving something, vanya completely expected him to say no as her hand grew tired and began to lower. 

Klaus caught it before it could. 

“I would enjoy that”, he said with a smile, pulling her towards him and twirling her around, “We'll dance and dance until Benny arrives”. 

Vanya laughed the entire night just like she had in the past, holding onto her brothers hand like her life depended on it. 

**Author's Note:**

> There will be more chapters...eventually. This was really just me trying to get back into writing after months of writhing nothing. Not sure exactly where I’m going with this story but hey, if you have any suggestions— leave them down below! Thank you for reading :) it means a lot


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